(RTTNews) - Drug maker Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (IDRA: News ), Wednesday, said that Merck & Co., Inc. through an affiliate, has extended its research collaboration with Idera for a fourth year. In another development, Idera said Novartis will terminate its four-plus years long Asthma and Allergy research collaboration deal effective February 21, 2010, with all rights to IMO-2134, a novel agonist of TLR9 identified in the collaboration, resting with Idera.

The collaboration with Merck was originally formed on December 11, 2006 aimed at researching, developing and commercializing Idera's Toll-like Receptor agonists by incorporating them in therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines being developed by Merck for oncology, infectious diseases and Alzheimer's disease.

Under the terms of the deal, the two companies were engaged in a two-year research and development collaboration to generate novel agonists targeting TLR7 and TLR8, while incorporating both Merck and Idera chemistry for use in vaccines in the licensed fields. The deal also provides Merck rights to extend the collaboration for two additional one-year periods.

The deal also required Idera to provide Merck with worldwide exclusive rights to a number of its agonist compounds targeting TLR 7, 8 and 9 for use in combination with Merck's therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines.

As per the 2006 deal, Merck agreed to pay an upfront license fee of $20 million to Idera and to purchase $10 million of its common stock at $5.50 per share. The deal also called for providing $165 million in milestone payment to Idera if vaccines are successfully developed and another $260 million for follow-on indications in the oncology field and the successful development of additional vaccines containing Idera's TLR agonists.
Commenting on the current development, Tim Sullivan, Vice President of Development Programs Idera said, "During the first three years of our agreement, scientists at Idera and Merck have created a large portfolio of novel agonists of TLRs 7, 8, and 9 using Idera's chemistry-based approach together with Merck's innovations in chemistry and adjuvant formulation."

Idera, in December 2007, has also entered into a worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, for the research, development and commercialization of Idera's Toll-like Receptor 9 agonists for the treatment of cancer. Related to this agreement, Idera in February 2009 achieved a clinical milestone and become eligible to receive $3.8 million in milestone payment.

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